Add Scottie Scheffler to the list of prominent PGA Tour players who don’t think members of LIV Golf should be allowed to return as if “nothing ever happened.”
Scheffler, who is No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, told the Golf Channel on Wednesday that he believes any PGA Tour-Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund merger should include a pathway back for LIV golfers, but not without some sort of penalty.
Scheffler pointed to the “different levels” of defections to LIV Golf over the past two years.
“You had some guys that left our tour and then sued our tour,” Scheffler said at the WM Phoenix Open. “That wasn’t really in great taste.
“Then you had some other guys that just left and they wanted to do something different. Everybody made their own decision and I have no bad blood towards the guys that left. But a path towards coming back, I think it wouldn’t be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened.”
Rory McIlroy, once the fiercest critic of LIV Golf, recently did a 180 in saying that LIV golfers who wish to return to the PGA Tour should be able to do so without sanction. Scheffler joins a group including Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler that have responded by saying they aren’t in favor of a “direct” route back for LIV players.
“I think there should be a pathway back for them, but they definitely shouldn’t be able to come back without any sort of contribution to the tour, if that makes sense,” Scheffler said.
The PGA Tour still is in negotiations with the PIF, which financially backed LIV Golf and got several big names to break away from the tour in 2022 and 2023. The PGA Tour suspended those players indefinitely for playing on the LIV Golf circuit, most recently World No. 3 Jon Rahm of Spain, who signed with LIV Golf in December.
Scheffler said he believes “most of the players” who stuck with the PGA Tour share his opinion about LIV Golf defectors.
“We remained loyal to a tour, a tour that was loyal to us,” Scheffler said. “I built my entire career here on the PGA Tour and I wasn’t willing to leave it. I dreamt of playing on this tour. Some of the guys that left, maybe that wasn’t for them. But I think that if they want a pathway back, that there should be one, but it definitely shouldn’t just be coming back in the first week they want to come back and play.
“There should be some sort of caveat to them getting back on our tour.”